Somebody to Love
by ellie-hiddlebatch
Summary: Lily catches James snooping around at night. The events that follow aren't forseen by either of them.
1. Chapter 1

"And what do you think you're doing?"

James turned around, stared at the prefect's bright red hair, and attempted to come up with a quick response to excuse his actions.

"Well, err, it's quite a long story," James began, "and I'm quite sure that you don't want to hear it all."

"I have all night," Lily said, sounding incredibly bossy.

"Oh." His plan didn't quite work. "Well, I wanted to go to the library, but then I got lost."

"You...got...lost." Lily didn't believe James one bit.

James hesitated. "N-Yes. I...got lost."

"Well then," Lily said, "You probably should head back to the common room, because otherwise I'll give you a detention for not being back by curfew."

"Speaking of curfew," James rebutted, standing up a little straighter, "what are you, a _prefect_, doing out at night?"

"Err- that's not really important at the moment, is it?" Lily was taken aback by James' question.

"Such a naughty girl," James said, teasing her.

"I'm- that's- that's demeaning, and you're a sexist hog, James Potter!" Lily raced up the stairs.

"I didn't mean that like that!" James shouted, knowing he had made Lily upset. "Don't take it too seriously!"

"Every single effing day," Lily shouted at him, "you always hit on me, and flirt with me, and I just want it to effing stop. Okay? I don't like you. You've got to understand that."

"I do understand," James said after moments of silence, spent reevaluating the situation and composing his response. "But, as I'm a Gryffindor, I'll persistently beg you to change your mind."

"And I'll persistently say no." Lily stormed up the remaining stairs, which led straight to the painting of the fat lady. "Gargoyle," Lily muttered, just loud enough for James to hear it. She stepped in.

James moved out of the corridor he was in and stepped onto the staircase. Knowing his luck, it was a miracle that it didn't move. He murmured the password to the fat lady, who was clearly annoyed with James entering a good 30 seconds after Lily had slammed the door shut. He entered the common room, surprised to encounter a drunken Sirius, a sleeping Peter, a sober Remus, and a very ticked-off Lily.

"Why on Earth did you think that this was a good idea?" she asked Remus, knowing that the other two wouldn't answer properly.

"I didn't," Remus said. "But I wasn't going to spoil their fun. I mean, if they want to make terrible choices with their lives, it's their decision. Isn't that right, mate?" Remus clapped Sirius on the back.

"What he said," Sirius slurred. James chuckled.

"James!" Lily said, even more annoyed than before. "He's drunk!"

"Lighten up, Lil." James realized what he had just said and feared the consequences.

"Lily," she said. "My name… is Lily."

"Yeah," James said, "yeah. That's what I said."

"No," Lily said, her cheeks becoming red with anger, "you called me Lil. Nobody can do that."

"Hasn't Snivelus done that?"

"Don't you _dare_ bring Severus into this." Lily stared at James, appalled. "You have no right to bring him into this. He's much more of a man than you."

She ran up the stairs, going up to the girl's dormitory.

"Harsh, mate," said Sirius, who was having trouble standing up. "Don't take it too bad." He fell over.

"No," James said, smiling. "No, I won't."


	2. Chapter 2

James awoke the next morning with a slight headache. "You awake?" he asked Sirius groggily.

"Mmmhmm," Sirius muttered. He maneuvered hi body to a position where he could easily see James. "Evans was mad last night."

"You remember?" James asked, full of surprise.

"Mmmhmm," Sirius repeated. "She hates you."

"I know," James sighed, patting down his unruly chocolate-colored hair. It never laid flat, no matter how much time he spent combing it, or brushing it, or doing whatever odd method that his mother would suggest. None of it would ever work.

"James?" Remus was now up. "Sirius?"

"Hmm," Sirius said. James then took note of the fact that Sirius' long, shaggy hair was in a significantly worse state than James'. "Why do you all talk to me when I'm hungover?"

"Sirius, we have class in ten minutes." Remus sat up.

Sirius, while cursing loudly (which subsequently woke Peter up), got changed quickly despite the fact he was half asleep and shuffled out of the common room.

"Remus, it's Sunday."

"I know," Remus smiled.

"What the..." Sirius exclaimed, rushing into the once-peaceful common room of Gryffindor Tower. "Moony!" he yelled as he stormed up the stairs and burst back into the common room. "You said it was Monday!"

"Yes, because you've never messed with me before," Remus said sarcastically. He grinned at Sirius, who returned his look with a childish roll of his eyes.

"Whatever," Sirius said, "I'm going back to bed." He strut across the dormitory to his bed, which he fell on top of in a rather clumsy manner.

"I'm going to breakfast," James said, standing up. He lazily put on his robes and stepped down the stairs, and as he stepped through the portrait hole, a voice stopped him.

"Potter."

"Evans?"

"I wanted to apologise for what I said last night. I was tired, I was mad… and I had to take it all out on someone. Sorry."

"Oh." James had a clear look of surprise on his face. "Okay. Err- apology accepted."

"Good. Now, are you going or not? Because I need to through."

"Oh. Yeah." He stepped through, and held the portrait open for Lily. "Going to breakfast, or…"

"James, is this some lame attempt to eat with me?"

"You called me James."

"Yeah, I am going to go eat. I'm not wasting any time though, I'm going to the library."

"I need to write an essay," James remembered.

"You never write your essays," Lily said sarcastically.

"I know."

"You never go to breakfast without another marauder, and you-"

"You know about the marauders?"

"Remember how the map turned up on your bed after a night of drinking in the common room?"

"That was you?"

"Yeah. Me. And I didn't report you."

"Lily Evans, I love you."

The two strode in silence to the great hall. Eating quickly,they never said a word to each other, until Lily spoke up.

"The reason I was so mad," Lily said, "is because Severus called me a mudblood."

"That arse!" James exclaimed, whipping out his wand.

"No, James," Lily said, lowering his wand with her hand. "It's fine now. It just slipped out of him."

"Lily, the guy called you the most offensive name I can think of. I don't think you should hang out with him."

"We have our issues," Lily rationalized, "and we're fine. Taking a break."

"You say that like you were dating."

Lily was silent.

"You haven't-"

She nodded.

"No- you wouldn't!"

"Of course I wouldn't! I was joking! Oh my Merlin, your face!" Lily laughed until her face was the same color of her hair. "Come on, let's go to the library."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: OHMYGOODNESS I'm so sorry about how long it's been since I've updated this! I promise, more will come soon. I won't have that much time but I'll try to update ASAP. Thanks for being patient, guys :) -Ellie**

"James!"

"What?"

"You can't eat in here!"

"Why not?"

"It's a library!"

"So?"

"My Lord, James," Lily said, reshelving a particularly large book regarding goblin rights. "You could hurt the books!"

"Right," James said, grinning, "hurt the _sentient books._"

"Seriously," Lily said, "hide that now or get a detention from Madam Pince. Your choice."

James subsequently hid the plate of food he had smuggled in from the Great Hall into his robe as Madam Pince rounded the corner and strode toward the two.

"Talking about books, right?" she asked spookily.

"Yes," Lily replied. "Of course."

Madam Pince glared at the pair, suspicious of James but reassured by Lily, and slinked into the next aisle over.

"_James,_" Lily began, "I'm about ready to vanish that food. Eating in the library? It's practically suicide!"

"Oh, what's she going to do, it's not like she'll kill me."

"Well if it is, you'll have had it coming," Lily said, giggling softly.

"Blimey, Lily, it's nearly time for Potions. Don't want Slughorn's _precious jewel_ to be late."

"Oh my Lord, James," Lily laughed as they stepped out of the library. "We really are going to be late and it's all going to be your fault."

Lily's prediction, unfortunatley, was correct. They walked in nearly fifteen minutes into the lesson.

"Oh my god, Professor Slughorn, I'm so sorry. I was busy."

"With me," James said as he strutted in behind her. Sirius giggled like a schoolboy.

"No problem, Miss Evans, no problem." Horace Slughorn pointed to two empty chairs in the back of the classroom with rather large fingers. "Have a seat there," he said. Lily and James obeyed, Lily walking with a bit of a slouch and James walking proudly with his back straight.

"I didn't do the homework," James whispered into Lily's ear. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Of course you didn't."

"Can I see yours? Moony normally lets me borrow his."

"Moony?"

"Remus."

"Oh. Well, yeah, but no copying."

James skimmed through Lily's long roll of parchment, paying more attention to her than anything else. He always felt the world blur when he looked at her. She wasn't hot. She wasn't pretty. She was beautiful.

"James!" Lily said. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing! Nothing." His eyes lifted so that his eyes were locked in hers.

"Are you done?" she said in a stern tone of voice.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm done."

"Felix Felicis… the potion of-"

"Luck," Lily finished.

"Very good, Miss Evans. And Mr. Potter, how much of Felix Felicis do you need to bring the effects upon yourself?"

"Erm-" James said, shuffling Lily's paper. "One drop."

"Right again, Miss Evans."

James looked confused. "Evans? I answered that."

"With my paper," Lily giggled. Sirius and Remu snickered.

"Right then. Let's get brewing and the winner gets some Liquid Luck. I would say good luck, but, you know… Anyway, off you pop!"


End file.
